Album Review: Our Own Masters by Valient Thorr

At some point last year I got introduced to Valient Thorr by way of some best beard in metal contest on the internet and since the vocalist and participant, Thorr Himself, in the contest really looked like that guy from The Hangover movie (Zach Galifianakis) my curiosity was piqued and I went to check out some of their tunes. Lo and behold I had one of those moments where I was asking myself where had this band been my whole life. Heavy metal energy, punk rock attitude, and the spirit of good ol’ classic rock and roll. Needless to say I immediately grabbed me some music by them and totally grooved on it. They now have a new album out called Our Own Masters and I am excited to hear some fresh material from fun little band and share my thoughts on the record with you.

While not extremely familiar with Valient Thorr’s backlog, I really can’t say if they have ‘matured’, ‘progressed their sound’, or if the quality of this record surpasses their previous works, but after listening to the record multiple times I feel pretty confident that for established fans it will be another rip-roaring good time not straying far from their already established sound. Their establish sound, for you newcomers, is like if you take the high energy songs off a Thin Lizzy record and mate them with some D.R.I. and then send the spawn out to go binge drinking with NOFX where Clutch pop in to take a few shots of whiskey here and there. In my opinion, that’s a recipe for awesomeness. And the neat thing about hanging around this spawn is that they are really fucking fun to drink with never turning into that prickish, violent drunk, but always acting the clown (who’s actually funny) and at the same time utter rather intelligent things midst the antics. And he doesn’t overstay his welcome either!

And while Valient Thorr have a pretty solid, established sound, what really caught my ear about Our Own Masters is how dynamic the whole record is. Each song has its own personality and not one song sounds like the last. There’s the driving thrash metal of the opener “Immaculate Consumption”, the catchy ‘dirty pop’ feel of “Manipulation” where it bounce back and forth between dirty punk rock riffs and memorable chorus lines, and there’s the Descendents style punk rock song “No Strings Attached” that slips into this really neat slow roll groove from time to time. And then there’s my favorite track off the album “Insatiable” which carries this great Clutch-y/MC5-ish riffing and Thin Lizzy-like soloing to it and again makes the melodies stick like gum in your hair with those punk rock sensibilities. Great stuff.

And clocking in at under 40 minutes, Our Own Masters gets in, says what it has to say, and then leaves. That is before you chase out the door and invite them back in for a couple more rounds. For those who are looking for a record to have a good time with and don’t want to sacrifice quality for ‘dumb fun’ you can’t go wrong picking this record up. Enjoy!! Peace Love and Metal!!!